Mike"s friends held the inside lane and the other guys spread out for the last lap, fighting for the front. I tried to cross on the inside, but Mike stepped into the field making sure I had to pull back. That move would have disqualified him if it were a track meet, but I had a feeling all was fair in this last quarter mile.
A small tug snagged my tank top. At my right shoulder, Luke scowled at the back of Mike"s head. Luke raised his finger to his lips and motioned me behind him. I"m not sure why I let him pa.s.s me, but I fell in behind him and opened my gait to match his longer one.
As soon as our feet sounded on the pavement in unison, he kicked up the speed and shouted as he blew toward them.
"On your left!"
The guys didn"t stop to think. They broke rank and let Luke through with me on his heels. The moment we"d cleared, I stepped to the outside and tightening my stride, pulling my shoulders back and crossing the line at the same moment, tied for first place with Luke Parker.
Coach blew the whistle as we crossed the line, ending the race.
Luke turned his head just enough to catch my eye.
"Ease up?"
I nodded, trying to catch my breath after the sprint to the end. I was going to need every bit of stamina I had left. The laps may be done, but the parking spot was still anyone"s to snag.
Taking the short curve of the track, I glanced back. Behind us, Mike looked p.i.s.sed, but he still ran with Chris and one other guy. He must have been hoping if he outlasted me, Coach would let him stay.
I let Luke pull away and waited for the others to pa.s.s. My breath caught in my throat when I took an elbow to the shoulder as the trio went by. I waited for Chris to say something, but his attention was locked on Luke"s back.
From the rear, I watched the guys jockey for the lead. Poor dears didn"t know the joke was on them. If there was one thing I knew, it was how to win a race. Now that we"d pa.s.sed the final mile marker, it was all about Last Man Standing. With my shorter stride, speed may not be my friend, but time certainly was.
The sun skittered toward the tree tops as one-by-one almost all the guys gave up. The most relief I ever felt-ever-was when Chris stepped off the track after finishing his five miles. Knowing I wouldn"t have to beat him took all the pressure off. I rolled my shoulders, lowered my arms and shook my hands loose again as I watched the two guys half a lap ahead of me.
Luke"s gait still looked fairly comfortable, but he kept twisting his head as if to force a crick loose. Beside him Mike leaned forward, his stride shortening. He was going to drop. I hoped the ground hurt when it rushed up to meet his thick skull.
He slowed. Slowed. Slowed. Slowed-and turned and rushed to the outside of the track.
By the time I pa.s.sed him, he"d lost not only his dinner, but most likely lunch and breakfast too.
Ahead of me, Luke lessened his pace, glancing over his shoulder.
"Hey," he said, as I caught up with him. "You know, I have a truck."
"I"ve noticed."
He checked his watch, pressing the split b.u.t.ton as we crossed the mile line and I knew I was in for a long night.
"I could even, say... fit two girls in it each morning."
"Luke Parker," I raised my voice as we pa.s.sed the guys cheering him on from the sidelines. "Are you trying to bribe me into stopping?"
Luke glanced toward the crowd, judging if they"d heard my words but not breaking stride.
Chris scowled as we went by. Rachel"s advice echoed in my head about his "need to have his ego stroked" and "lack of acceptance of second best." I had a gut-sick feeling that even though he dropped way before I did, it was going to come back to haunt me.
"Not a bribe," Luke huffed. "Think of it this way, you get a ride, your friend gets a ride, and I get to not be so sore I can"t move during tryouts tomorrow."
"We"re just over six miles. I"m guessing this isn"t such a tough run for you."
"Nope. This is a cake walk." His lips curled up on the right side. "But I"m thinking that you could keep this going until the sun went down and everyone went home."
"Well, I"m hoping Coach sticks around. I wouldn"t want him to have to take my word for it that I kicked your b.u.t.t."
Luke"s laugh went right through my skin, tickling underneath it in a weird, uncomfortable way.
"You know what, Amy? You take the spot. I need these legs tomorrow to show your buddy what second place looks like. It"s his b.u.t.t I"d rather see flat in the gra.s.s anyway."
With that, Luke dropped behind me, slowing to a walk, his arms braced backward on his hips as he caught his breath. In the distance, the whistle sounded again and Coach shouted at the guys to circle up. More than half the team remained.
In the growing dusk, I prayed for two things as I braced myself against the chain link fence and stretched. One, that the extra run yesterday on top of the race today wouldn"t leave me too tight to get out of bed in the morning. And two, that Coach wouldn"t draw more attention to me and tick any of the guys off further.
I did my best to concentrate on my invisibility gene. Hopefully, now wasn"t the time it would go latent.
"You made a good showing today, men. The bottom ten, see Stafford in the morning. He may want to keep you around for JV." He snapped his binder shut and tucked it under his arm. "That is all."
Everyone made it to their feet and lumbered up the hill toward the school. I tried not to groan as I headed toward the field to lug in my binders and the table.
"Cafry! Johnson!" Coach shouted at two legacy freshman as he pa.s.sed me. "Bring in Whalen"s stuff and put the table in the locker room."
I sincerely thanked him. My legs sincerely thanked him.
Coach Sarche stopped and faced me. "I meant what I said, Whalen. Whatever reason you have for being here can"t be a good one. But you"re part of my team. If you hadn"t been before, you certainly earned your spot tonight."
"Thanks, Coach." I knew he wanted me back on the cross-country team-that competing on a team was the only thing he understood-but he"d never been a teenage girl stuck outside a snooty running clique.
With a gruff nod, he climbed the hill to the back door.
I waited at the stats" locker for the freshman to tote the stuff in so I could stash it. Pulling my backpack out, I heard a heavy tread fall silent behind me.
"Hey."
"Seriously?" I asked without turning around.
"Seriously what?"
When I glanced up, Luke stood behind me, confusion etching his brow just below the brown flop of hair that swept toward his eyes.
"Seriously, you start every conversation with *hey." Don"t you have another segue into small talk?"
Luke brought out that smirk-the one that was beginning to rub me the wrong way. "Why mess with something that works?"
Cafry sprinted in and skidded to a halt beside my locker. Glancing from Luke to me, he held the binders out. His cheeks heated and his gaze skittered away toward my feet.
"Thanks," I said, pulling the binders from his grasp and hoping both guys would just go away.
"That was great. Tonight. You winning and all." Freshman Cafry paused and looked up at Luke before finishing his sentence in an absurdly hushed tone, "Amy."
I froze, caught off guard by my own new notoriety. I wasn"t overly tall, but this kid barely squeaked past me. His skinny frame made him look very breakable standing next to Luke. I was suddenly happy we had a JV team and a Red Squad for freshman who didn"t make either.
"Thanks," I said again to fill the silence. "I"m glad it"s over."
Cafry grinned and Luke jerked his head toward the locker room sending the boy on his way.
"So, you ready to go?" Luke asked.
"Go where?"
"Home. I figure there"s no way you"re running after that." Luke bent to grab my pack. "Plus, the race went longer than normal and it"s way too dark out at this point."
"That"s alright, Parker." Chris appeared on my other side, sandwiching me between them. "I"ve got this one."
Luke stilled, his grin slipping. "It isn"t a problem. I"m heading that way."
For a moment I thought Chris would let Luke take me home. But he reached past me for my bag, giving it a tug and loosened it from Luke"s grip.
"It wasn"t really a suggestion." Chris slung the bag over his shoulder and wrapped his arm around me, turning me away from Luke and the lockers. Letting his hand rest on my lower back, he asked, "Ready, babe?"
I fought hard to keep the smile off my face, or at least to make it less like something Rachel"s little sister would do if a Jonas Brother walked into her kitchen.
"Sure." I glanced over my shoulder at Luke. "Thanks anyway, Luke. I"ll see you tomorrow."
Chris gave me a little push through the door he held open.
"Nice run," I shouted before it fell shut, leaving Chris and me alone for the first time in two weeks.
Chapter 9.
The run had gone longer than I thought. The streetlights lit the parking lot in a dim, polka dot fashion. I paused at the pa.s.senger"s door, but Chris had already rounded the back, unlocking the driver"s side.
A shiver ricocheted over my skin as the cool evening air seeped through my sweat-drenched clothes. I wished I"d known I"d be racing. A clean, dry shirt would have been better than a foot rub. Chris started the car then threw the lock switch on his side to let me in.
Slipping the seat belt home, I glanced to where Luke pa.s.sed in front of the car, his tall frame casting a streetlight shadow over the dash. He stopped and watched Chris maneuver from the spot and then, with a shake of his head, made his way to his truck.
"So, babe. What was with that run tonight?" Chris pulled out of the lot, glancing my way as he sped down the first hill.
I tucked the seat belt under my arm so I could twist to face him. The dashboard lit his face in an uneven pattern, the steering wheel blocking the glow from his eyes so I couldn"t read his thoughts.
"What do you mean?" I asked, trying not to sound pushy, ignoring the inner-neediness that crept up on me every time he was near.
"I knew you ran and all. I mean, it isn"t your fault Coach put you on the spot like that, but you didn"t have to win. Ya know?"
The August heat had nothing on the warmth radiating off my skin at his words.
"Actually, Mike Gerrard put me on the spot. And yes, I did have to win. Especially when it came down to just me and Luke. There was no way I was letting him beat me."
Chris"s brows lowered, shading his eye-soul-windows even more.
"Parker"s a pain in the a.s.s, but I mean, still."
He wanted me to throw the race? Even to Luke?
"None of the other girls would have done that." He downshifted at the bottom of the hill. "Cheryl and Mandy wouldn"t have drawn it out like that."
I snorted. I considered snorting twice, actually. "Cheryl and Mandy can"t run a sub-eighteen 5k."
"Whatever." Chris slowed the car as we b.u.mped over the wooden bridge. "What did Parker and you talk about during those last laps? Is he still curious about the team?"
I thought over the last few days and realized Luke had never asked me about the team. Not once. Not about the binders or Coach or tryouts or the team or anything. Never did he do anything that may have been James Bond Interrogation-Worthy. The only thing he"d been curious about was if I was living in some fantasy world where Chris was a modern day knight in a shining Acura.
Luke would never get that there was more to this than my overactive imagination. I mean, he thought he was so smart and so Mr. Know-it-all, but he just- He just needed to get out of my head is what he needed to do.
Shaking off the annoyed feeling I was beginning to a.s.sociate with Luke, I answered Chris"s question, trying to focus on how important these tryouts were to him.
"No. He kind of shied away from talking about team stuff. He probably-Chris!" I watched Pebble Lane go by. "You pa.s.sed my drive."
"What?" Chris looked over his shoulder. "I thought you lived in some house down here?"
"I do. Back there." I pointed behind us toward my little dirt road.
"c.r.a.p. Is there a place to turn around up here?"
All that surrounded us were the teetering corn stalks on one side and the dark wall of the forest on the other.
"This dead ends at the Johnson"s farm." I settled in, watching the woods fly by the window. "I can"t believe you missed my drive."
"It isn"t like I"ve been there a lot," he grumbled.
Rachel"s voice raced through my mind again. I replayed all those nights Chris and I hung out at the Rec Center after the kids" parents picked them up. Almost an entire summer"s worth of evenings and he"d only driven me home twice. I either caught a ride with Rachel before she left for the summer, or I walked.
Luke never would have let me walk home alone in the dark. A shudder rocked me as I considered where that thought came from. Luke just wouldn"t get out of my mind.
And, Luke wasn"t Chris. No matter the nice things he did. Luke wasn"t the guy who I"d gotten to know this summer after years of wanting to know him better. The guy who was secretly sweet and worried about school and avoided his parents and helped his friends run drills and told me things after the kids went home I was pretty sure he didn"t broadcast to the world. There was something bonding about being the person someone shared stuff with.
So, no. Luke wasn"t Chris.
Chris used the Johnson"s circular drive to turn back toward my house. "Listen, babe. I"m not sure you should be hanging around with Parker."
I shifted again to look at him fully. "What? We aren"t hanging out."
"He"s new and you"re sweet to be nice to him, but he"s out for my spot on the team. You can"t be spending time with him. It isn"t going to work."